There are many materials used today that have characteristics that change over time, have the potential to expire, or may be contaminated. Consumers generally do not have a reliable means of monitoring the current status and characteristics of these products before or after purchasing or delivery. One such class of products is water that can be delivered by plumbing or water bottles. Potential problems with water include contamination, whether in a municipal water distribution system or in a water packaging facility. Another class of such products is beverages, especially wines, which are known to change characteristics over time, including characteristics relevant to taste of the wine. Another class of such products is foodstuffs. A common problem with beverage and foodstuff products is that these products may spoil, decompose, or proceed past their ideal period for consumption, maturity point, or peak flavor point.
For water, a consumer typically relies on municipal water treatment systems or quality control in the water bottle packaging facility. For beverage products and foodstuffs, some manufacturers provide an estimated “best before” date or a date on which the product was produced, which serves as a crude benchmark for estimating when a product has spoiled or passed its ideal consumption point. The typical consumer relying on these dates, however, must trust that the product contained within the packaging is still in good condition upon consumption and that it will match the characteristics advertised by the manufacturer.
Another class of materials that experiences relevant changes in characteristics over time are chemical products. The changes may be induced by environmental factors or they may occur spontaneously. They may be due to physical process changes such as evaporation or on-going chemical reaction processes such as ion exchange or other reactions. A chemical substance may only be useful to the purchaser when it possesses characteristics within a particular range.
Current solutions to monitoring water, beverages, foodstuffs, and similar materials typically involve invasive testing of the product or measurements performed on gas/vapor given off by the product. Many solutions require that the container be opened, thus altering the product's state or in many cases accelerating the spoiling process. Further, solutions that reference the gas/vapor given off by the product are indirect and may have reduced accuracy or may be incapable of measuring the desired characteristics.